Seven large Islamist groups, amounting to about 45,000 fighters — Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, Suqour al-Sham, Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Sham, and the Kurdish Islamic Front — announced their “gradual merger” into an Islamic Front to battle the Assad regime and create an Islamic state. The group’s spokesman said the Al Nusrah Front wanted the seven groups under its banner. The Islamic Front’s leader previously headed the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, which is aligned to the Free Syrian Army’s Supreme Military Council. Regime forces battled in the Qalamoun region against Al Nusrah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. ISIS stormed the headquarters of the moderate rebel group Suqour al-Islam in the town of Atma near the Turkish border. Islamist fighters in Raqqah began taxing civilians for electricity. Two rebel brigades in Reef Dimashq withdrew from the Military Council and joined with other battalions to form the al-Rahman Corps. Hundreds of fighters from ISIS, Al Nusrah, and other Islamist groups stormed Deir A’tiya city. ISIS, Al Nusrah, and other Islamic battalions clashed with regime forces in Aleppo. Regime and Islamist fighters clashed in Hama. An ISIS video featured a slain American jihadist.
